China Paper Milled Calcium Carbonate (I)

The consumption of paper-grinded ground calcium carbonate (GCC) in China continued to grow for seven consecutive years. The development of paper-making GCC presents new features and trends, mainly in the following aspects.
1. Paper-making GCC New Enterprises and Market Consumption Continue to Maintain High-speed Growth
From May 2001 to May 2002, there were 7 newly-built and expanded 7-50,000 t/a paper-making GCC companies, with a total production capacity of 156,000 tons, of which 3 satellite-based production lines were designed by Suzhou Jinhuasheng Paper Company. 50,000 t/a, the maximum production capacity. At present, China's papermaking wet GCC total production capacity exceeds 800,000 tons.
According to the calculation of actual consumption of GCC by 22 key paper-making enterprises in China and domestic total paper production in 2001, China's GCC consumption in papermaking in 2001 was estimated at 600,000 tons, which is an increase of 46.3% compared with the same period in 2000. The rapid increase in consumption has mainly the following reasons:
1 In order to increase the whiteness of paper and reduce production costs, a group of medium and small paper-making enterprises began to make heavy use of local resources and used a high degree of whiteness of 400-1250 GCC instead of talcum powder purchased at a high cost from a long distance. In the past two years, due to the increase in the consumption of GCC and PCC in papermaking, the volume of talc in filling grade decreased from 1.3 million tons in 1999 to more than 1 million tons in 2001.
2In 2001, due to the increased anti-dumping efforts of imported coated paper, the production volume of domestic coated paper and coated paperboard increased by 300,000 tons and 500,000 tons respectively in 2000, which promoted the consumption growth of GCC.
3 Due to the price cuts of domestic wet GCC equipment, satellite production lines have not only continued to expand in large paper companies, but some small and medium-sized enterprises have also begun to build their own special GCC production lines. It is predicted that by 2005 GCC consumption will exceed 800,000 tons.
2. Accession to the WTO has created conditions for foreign companies with economic and technological strength to enter the non-mining industry of papermaking in China
In accordance with the country’s new policy of opening up to the outside world, foreign investment can be used not only to build a processing plant solely, but also to directly purchase exploration rights and mining rights in the mine. Due to the sluggish world economy, the growth of papermaking calcium carbonate in developed countries has been slow. Some companies have turned their economic growth points to Asia and are also targeting the potential market of China's paper industry. According to statistics, there are 15 companies in not less than 8 countries involved in the field of papermaking non-mining processing. Some domestic companies are seeking to introduce foreign capital and technology to build a high-level GCC production line, forming "calcium carbonate" fever. GCC's main factory model is to establish a satellite production line with the large papermaking group and strive to build high-quality GCC commodity bases with large mines. Several powerful foreign companies in China have 600,000 t/a of production capacity. In 2001, the output reached more than 300,000 tons, which means that domestic paper GCC has 50% of its share controlled by foreign companies. This will further promote the improvement of domestic paper GCC production technology and product quality, and at the same time increase the competition among domestic calcium carbonate companies, not only in the competition between the original domestic and domestic enterprises, but also in the domestic enterprises and the strength of the The fierce competition among foreign-funded enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises.
Macroscopically, the era of low-input, extensive enterprise construction in the past has passed. The construction of new enterprises has a higher starting point, not only in the need for more advanced production technology, advanced and reliable equipment, more capital investment, but also more scientific and sound management and effective management tools. In the past, the simple, original competitive means of relying on price cuts to increase sales costs could no longer meet the needs of modern market economies. Compared with foreign large companies, the biggest deficiency of domestic non-mining companies in market competition is that they cannot provide users with the best use of technology and large quantities of high-quality and stable products. The biggest risk of building a new GCC company in the future is the kind of production unit that is out of two. Satellite factories based on reliable markets will become the main mode of construction. A reasonable supply radius is also an important factor that needs careful consideration in the construction of new enterprises.
3. The new trade mode has stabilized the market prices. Due to the blind start of the paper GCC's small and medium-sized enterprises and disorderly market competition in the past few years, the paper-making GCC prices have continued to decline for five consecutive years, and have fallen by as much as the prices in 1998. From 35% to 50%, D60 products in some areas have already fallen to low profit. It is predicted that except for dry powder products and D90 products, there is still room for price reduction, and in the future certain periods can be basically stabilized at the current price level.
The traditional way of trade is to bargain on both sides based on the seller’s quoted price. With the standardized development of the market economy, the new trade method is based on the buyer's detailed costing approved by the seller, with reference to the profit rate of the international market and the domestic market, giving the manufacturer a reasonable profit. This new form of trade has reduced the possibility of huge profits for producers and made the market price more reasonable and stable. (To be continued)